Libya's highest political authority, the General National Congress (GNC), having failed for the fourth time on Sunday to produce a no-confidence vote on the government of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, finally ousted him on Tuesday and replaced Zeidan with Defense Minister Abdallah Al-Thnini. Many GNC members regard as incompetent in its handling of the deteriorating state of security and other pressing issues in the country. In its evening session of 9 March, the assembly was unable to discuss the no-confidence bill that had been on the agenda for this session as many members withdrew in protest to the fact that the proposals of the February Committee regarding presidential and parliamentary elections and amendments to the August 2011 Constitutional Declaration had not been brought to a vote. The no-confidence question was one of the points in those proposals. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly by phone from Tripoli on Sunday, GNC member Amina Al-Mugheirbi explained that the Loyalty to the Blood of the Martyrs bloc had been instrumental in obstructing the vote on the February Committee's proposals. The bloc, led by Abdel-Wahab Al-Qaid, brother of Al-Qaeda leader Abu Yahya Al-Libi, opposes the recommendation calling for direct presidential elections and insists, instead, that the president should be elected indirectly by parliament. This would give them the power to dominate that position just as they currently dominate the GNC. “The dispute over the presidential electoral process had not been settled in the morning session because of the members of the Loyalty to the Blood of the Martyrs bloc,” she said. Then, in the evening session when a vote on the February Committee recommendations was expected, “we were surprised to find that a report submitted by the National Auditing Authority on government expenditure was up for discussion and that the vote on the recommendations had been cancelled.” In response, a number of GNC members withdrew from that session in protest. Al-Mugheirbi is a representative of the National Forces Alliance led by the liberal politician Mahmoud Jibril. The Loyalty to the Blood of the Martyrs is more staunchly conservative than its ally, the Freedom and Construction Party, the political wing of the Libyan chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood. Another GNC member, Ahmed Lanqi, told the Weekly by phone that the Saturday evening session and morning session, which were held in the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli, had been dedicated to discussing the reports by the auditing authority and administrative oversight authority on the performance and expenditures of the interim government. He added that the agenda item regarding withdrawing confidence from the Zeidan government had been postponed indefinitely. Reacting to the move against him, Zeidan charged that the GNC was an extension of the General People's Congress that had existed in the Gaddafi era. Speaking in an interview aired on Al-Arabiya news channel on 9 March, Zeidan said that there was a group in the GNC that agreed with the government and another group that agreed with its own orientations. The latter was a reference to the Justice and Construction Party and the Loyalty to the Blood of the Martyrs bloc, which have been pushing for a withdrawal of confidence. Meanwhile, tensions over the oil port blockade, imposed by members of a pro-federalist group from Cyrenaica since June 2013, notched up dramatically when a North Korean oil tanker entered Al-Sadra Port, the largest of the three oil-exporting ports in Libya's “oil crescent”. Charging that the recently created Executive Bureau of Cyrenaica was attempting to export oil outside of official channels and for its own benefit, both the government and the GNC threatened to sink the vessel if it left the port. Prime Minister of the Cyrenaican Executive Bureau, Abd-Rabbo Al-Barassi, countered that the threats by officials in the GNC and interim government, if carried out, would be tantamount to a declaration of war. At the moment of writing, it is uncertain whether the tanker has been filled. Zeidan reiterate his warning that his government would try to prevent the tanker from leaving the port. Against the backdrop of these fraught developments in Libya, the international ministerial conference of the Friends of Libya group took place in Rome. It was the second such conference, the first having been held in Paris in February 2013. Attended by the foreign ministers from the US, Russia and the EU, participants discussed the current situation in Libya and what assistance could be offered to curb the ongoing deterioration of security in the country. Libya remains under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, in accordance with which international powers may intervene in the event of developments that are perceived to threaten international peace and security. The situation in Libya is, indeed, critical. The country has been thrown into further disarray as the result of the controversy over the extension of the term of the GNC, which had been scheduled to end 7 February in accordance with the August 2011 Constitutional Declaration. This development compounded mounting complications and tensions surrounding the Zeidan government, and in particular calls for it to step down due to its dismal failure in handling crucial issues, most notably the security breakdown that threatens the unity of the state. Political violence has remained as rife as ever since the overthrow of regime. According to recently revealed statistics, last month alone 58 assassinations were recorded in three cities: Benghazi and Derna to the east, and Sirte in the centre of the country. That makes for an average of one high profile murder a day in Libya. The opening days of March brought more bloodshed. In Benghazi alone there were 12 assassinations. Victims included a French engineer who had worked for a French firm supervising the maintenance of the second tower of the Benghazi Medical Centre, and two more Egyptian Christians on top of the seven who were killed in late February. In addition, two murdered corpses were discovered 2 March. They were identified by Libyan activists as belonging to the Islamist Ansar Al-Sharia militia operating in Benghazi and Derna. The opening week of March also brought more anti-government demonstrations. For the fourth Friday in a row, mass demonstrations were held to protest the extension of the term of the GNC and call for the resignation of the current government. Protesters hold these bodies responsible for steering the country towards disaster since they came into power in August 2012 and are pressing for snap elections to bring in a new parliamentary body and government. The demonstrations took a violent turn Sunday when angry protesters stormed the GNC premises in Tripoli and set fire to its assembly hall. The move was reported to be in response to the abduction that morning of some protesters who had been staging a sit-in in front of the GNC building. Although the kidnappers have not been identified, the protesters blamed the Revolutionaries of Libya Operations Room, which had been suspected of engineering the kidnapping of Zeidan in October and the subsequent kidnapping of members of the Egyptian diplomatic mission in Tripoli in January. The protesters further maintain that the Revolutionaries of Libya Operations Room is the paramilitary wing of the alliance of the Muslim Brotherhood's Justice and Construction Party and the Loyalty to the Blood of the Martyrs, which is led by the brother of Al-Qaeda leader Abu Yahya Al-Libi, who was killed in a drone attack near the Pakistani-Afghan border two years ago. At dawn on Sunday gunmen attacked and burned down the tents that the protesters had erected for their extended sit-in. The attackers then abducted several of protesters and took them to an unknown location before releasing them later that day. Following the abductions, protesters blocked roads leading to the GNC building and vowed not to lift the roadblock until the abducted were released. Guns were fired during the storming of the GNC building and several members of that body were wounded. These included the controversial Abdel-Rahman Al-Soweihli, Abdel- Fattah Al-Shalwa and Ahmed Al-Nubi, all of who were rushed to hospital for treatment. High-level GNC sources, that the Weekly interviewed by phone while they were being detained in the GNC premises, expressed fears that the situation in the country was on the verge of spinning entirely out of control, especially given the dismal state of security in the country and the acute political polarisation. The sources, that asked to remain anonymous in view of the delicacy of the current situation, mentioned that various parties were doubling their efforts to bring down the GNC in order to pave the way for the return to power of “affiliates of the old regime”. They also reported that some of their fellow members in the chamber had been beaten and described recent developments as “alarming”. One source observed that the storming of the GNC chambers, located near the Riksos Hotel in Tripoli, “raises numerous questions concerning the party that stands to benefit from this dangerous escalation.” The sources blamed “extremists inside and outside of the GNC” for having driven the situation to this stage. One of the sources added that the armed youth who stormed the building were working on behalf of extremists whom he did not identify. The sources stressed that the storming of the GNC premises took place after the release of the youths who had been abducted earlier on Sunday morning. GNC speaker Nouri Abu Sahmein laid the blame for that day's events on GNC members whom he referred to as “enemies of the February Revolution”. The attack on the premises was planned in advance and he described the protesters whose tents had been burned as “drunkards and addicts of hallucinogenic pills”. Political activists, particularly those involved in the “No to the Extension” movement, charge that the GNC is to blame for the current escalation because it refused to respond to the people's demands and in particular their rejection of the extension of the GNC term. Observers have noted a total absence of security measures to protect the GNC premises and its members when it was stormed. In addition, individuals in military uniform were sighted inside the GNC chamber at the time. Many fear that the repercussions of the incident will be further complicated by the regional allegiances of GNC members who were injured during that attack. Prominent political figures have issued statements calling on the people who elected those members to protect their representatives in the congress. Prime among such figures was Deputy Defence Minister Khaled Al-Sherif. Other politicians called for the dissolution of the Al-Qaqaa Regiment and the Lightening Brigade, which are affiliated with the city of Zintan and are said to be the military wing of the liberal National Forces Alliance. Since it first undertook its duties in September 2012, the GNC has been attacked or stormed more than 250 times. However, the latest incident Sunday was the largest and most violent. Many fear that it will plunge the already crisis plagued political process in Libya into a deep abyss. It has also raised questions regarding the fate of the GNC's Decree 27 of November 2011 calling for the evacuation of all militias and armed groups from Libyan towns and cities. Following the storming of the GNC premises, GNC speaker Abu Sahmein, in his capacity as supreme commander of the Libyan armed forces, issued a decree authorising the Tripoli Military Council to secure Greater Tripoli. The decree states: “In view of the current circumstances through which the country is passing, and especially the events at the National Congress and the security breakdown during the preceding two days, and in view of the manifestations of illegitimate armed activities led by some criminals and outlaws against legitimacy and the aims of the 17 February Revolution, we have charged the chairman of the Tripoli Military Council with the protection of the whole of Greater Tripoli, inclusive of the entrances and exits of the city and the sovereign headquarters in it, and with the elimination of all illegitimate armed formations.” The decree, which has been described as “bold”, is likely to spark controversy that may intensify the polarisation among rival political groups, each of which has some form of militia backing, used whenever and however it wishes. Liberal and non-Islamist groups may see the decree as a means to target them, specifically as the Tripoli Military Council is headed by figures affiliated with the Islamist trend. Several weeks prior to last Sunday's events, the Al-Qaqaa and Al-Sawa militias issued an ultimatum giving GNC members five hours to evacuate the premises, tender their resignations and transfer authority to the Supreme Court. In addition, legal proceedings against the GNC were given fresh impetus following the recent lifting of parliamentary immunity against members. Islamists regard such steps as an attempt to stage what they call “the Egyptian scenario” in Libya, and demanded the dissolution of the Al-Qaqaa and Al-Sawa militias.
